NPR Story

2:00 pm

Mon February 20, 2012

'Hugo' Author Explores His Inspiration Up Close

When Brian O. Selznick wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabaret — a graphic novel about an orphan in 1930s Paris — he imagined the secret spaces of a Paris train station. For inspiration, he visited Grand Central Terminal in New York City. But the scenes in the book — hidden tunnels, secret rooms, the giant clock tower — were all drawn from Selznick's imagination and later turned into the movie Hugo by Martin Scorcese, which is nominated for 12 Academy Awards. Selznick recently got to explore Grand Central's secrets for the first time and it turns out that life imitated art in shockingly faithful ways.